Rare musket traced to San Jacinto

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Researchers say there's a very good chance that the only documented firearm left from the Battle of San Jacinto was also used in the Battle of the Alamo.

James Mitchell of Freedom Documents Fun, Inc. in Jasper, Texas, said they stumbled across the East India Pattern Brown Bess musket by accident when they found it at a gun show one year ago.

They are currently organizing a statewide museum tour to show the musket, starting at the Dallas Museum, and are scheduled to display it the San Jacinto Museum of History after Labor Day.

"What was different about this musket was the initials of the owner were carved into the wooden stock," Mitchell said. "This allowed us to trace the gun back to the original owner through registered archives."

The owner turned out to be James Lathem, a freight carrier who drove a gun wagon between the Republic of Texas arsenals at Wharton and Houston. Mitchell thinks this gun was given to Lathem by Sam Houston, or someone with Houston's army, to use as protection.

"Sam Houston captured 600 muskets from the Mexican Army after the Battle of San Jacinto," Mitchell said. "All of their other firearms were destroyed in the war with Mexico. That's why these muskets are so hard to find."

Not only are they hard to find, but hard to find intact. Most of Houston's 600 rifles were in need of repair, and were sent to Wharton where they were put together using parts from other guns.

"This musket is fully in tact," Mitchell said. "It will be the only one of its kind in any museum in the state of Texas. Those firearms shown today at the Alamo, save the cannon, were never used at the Alamo. This one we can prove was used at San Jacinto and the Alamo too, more than likely."

Mitchell said most of the Mexican and Texan armies used this type of musket. The Brown Bess was made by the East India Co. in England. Santa Anna patterned himself after Napoleon and fashioned his army's dress and guns after this role model. The musket was the most popular used by armies in Europe.

"Mexico bought all their guns directly from England," he said. "Even though this style of musket had been around for years, it was still the best musket around."

Mitchell doesn't use the word rifle when describing it. Rifles were rare for both sides, and used only by sharpshooters. The musket, however, had tremendous trajectory, a large ball, and was devastating at close range.

Gary Wiggins of the Highlands Preservation Society, who wrote a book on guns used by the South in the War Between the States, once owned the same type musket himself.

"I sold it for a lot of money," Wiggins said. "His claims are pretty high but he is right about one thing in that it is very hard to document where it came from. I couldn't document mine, nor could I prove it was made with all the original parts like the one they found."

Strutt said the musket was not the only one used at the Alamo.

"The Texans used anything they could get," Strutt said. There were also some renegades from the American Army who brought sharpshooters. The musket found was ideal because it held an intact bayonet, a valuable weapon at the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto."

The musket will be shown in full battlefield dress with bayonet, sling, and mounted flint in a custom-made display case.